Parents and caregivers of children on the autism spectrum have a very challenging responsibility that can often consume a family. These children require constant care and monitoring; they have difficulty communicating, and can easily become lost if the caregiver's attention is only momentarily distracted. Focus groups of parents of autistic children report that they have almost universally experienced the terror and frustration of losing a child in a crowded street, theater, or mall. Since the child often cannot communicate well, they are very difficult to locate, even when there is a public address system or other means of alerting the crowd to their plight.
With the advent of sophisticated global positioning satellite (“GPS”) technology and smart phones there is no shortage of locating technologies for children, pets, packages, house arrest prisoners, and adults, each with some special features for that particular group. The technologies fall into several major categories as follows:                Child GPS locator by Brickhouse transmits the GPS coordinates to a smart phone and plots the position on a map. This device also can track the movements of an individual over time. It only works where there is access to satellite signals, i.e. outdoors. The device is available from Brickhouse Security, 980 Avenue of the Americas, 3rd Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018, http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/category/gps+tracking.do?nType=1        Wireless locator devices use a specialized radio direction finder receiver to locate the wearable device within a few hundred feet. Such devices are available from Nationwide Medical Incorporated, 28632 Roadside Drive, Suite 210, Agoura Hills, Calif. 91301, http://www.nationwidemedical.com.        Cell phone locators allow the proximity to the cell towers to triangulate a rough position to the wearable or carried cell phone. This type of device is available from Verizon Wireless, www.verizonwireless.com.        “Mommy I'm Here” sound signal incorporates a small transmitter that activates an audible signal allowing the caregiver to locate the wearer as long as they are within earshot. This device is available from Mommy I'm Here, 4135 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Suite 280, Danville, Calif. 94506 http://www.mommyimhere.com.        Special police band emergency service uses a special police band ultra high frequency (“UHF”) radio signal on the wearable device to allow a radio direction finder used by the authorities to find the lost person. The office of emergency personnel must be called and an official search implemented. These devices are available from EmFinders, http://www.emfinders.com.        eTrak is a device that sends a set of geographical (latitude and longitude) coordinates when a child leaves a particular area or safety zone. The product is available from: eTrak Corporation, 8235 Douglas Ave. Suite #910, Dallas, Tex. 75225, infoetrak.com.        
Each of these technologies has advantages and disadvantages. In most cases the technologies available are in a sense looking for a problem to solve, rather than being an engineered solution to a specific problem such as a lost autistic child or Alzheimer's patient. As a result, few parents of autistic children have or use these products despite the near constant fear of losing their child in a crowd. Focus groups have reported the reasons for this and they include cost, both up front and monthly, size, battery life, and ability to locate the child indoors as well as outdoors. There also appear to be several physical versions needed depending on where in the spectrum each child is, as well as the age and gender of the child, although many of the autistic children are male.
Examples of the art in each of the respective technological areas are as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,163 to Singer et al. describes the use of a cellular network to locate a person by sending the coordinates of the receiving node to an authorized user. It does not describe the use of a GPS signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,914 to Change et al. teaches a method for optimizing a transmission signal path utilizing GPS locating technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,204 to Timm et al. discloses a method for providing roadside assistance to a stranded vehicle utilizing a GPS locating signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,794 to Lawrence provides a method of using an UHF homing signal on a wearable device to allow authorities to track and find a lost individual.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,757 to Layson, et al. describes a body worn device to track convicts on house arrest and uses both GPS and a wireless link with a base station to keep track of an individual.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,233 to Hoffman, et al. describes a wearable device which when activated by the user transmits a distress signal as well as the GPS location of the individual.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,442 to Welch discloses a wearable device used to generate a radio frequency (“RF”) signal that can be located in both distance and direction by a specialized radio direction finding receiver carried by the caregiver to find the individual assumed to be nearby.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,511,627 to Holoyda describes a locating device with the addition of a series of distance thresholds with alarms if the wearer goes beyond a certain boundary area. It also utilizes a radio direction finding receiver carried by the caregiver to vector in on the location of the wearable device.
Before applicants' presently described invention, the available technology had numerous limitations in respect of the quality of the information generated to assist in locating a lost person and/or in the need to use physically cumbersome equipment. For example, it has been possible to get a rough location of a lost child or adult using cellular triangulation technology from the cell sites but this is nowhere near accurate enough to find a child lost in a crowd within a few hundred feet of the caregiver. Alternatively, a radio frequency signal from a wearable device was used to determine the distance and direction to the lost person using a specialized radio direction finding receiver that had to be carried by the caregiver. GPS technology can be accurate enough to put the location of a lost person on a map and guide the finder to them. But this technology must have access to the satellites in order to function and, therefore, is not reliable indoors or in a city with tall buildings.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the previously known systems by providing apparatus comprising a two tier system utilizing cell phone tower triangulation technology for gross or approximate location, which works both indoors and outdoors anywhere there is cell service, and/or using GPS technology outdoors, combined with a radio direction finding technology to guide the finder to the lost person within a few hundred feet. In the preferred embodiment, the radio direction finder receiver is implemented in a smart phone so that the caregiver will always have the receiver at hand and be able to locate a lost person or pet. A cellular telephone unit is adapted to be affixed to or worn by a person, animal or package that may become lost. For example, the cellular telephone unit may be incorporated in a bracelet which cannot be removed by the person or it may be surgically implanted below the skin of the person or animal. This unit and its associated components are referred to from time to time herein as the “wearable unit”.
The term “package” as used herein is intended to mean any kind of item that can be lost; for example, a parcel, a vehicle, a device or any other physical thing.